Persephone's Confession
Cooper Esteban

I Blame

myself, Lord, not
the metaphor:
the burrowing
cone of the navel, the ear's
irregular harbor,
so that
when his finger slipped as
if by accident into the sound-
box of the lyre--
You understand--
a blossom
opens, sticky with pollen,
from the bud he brings
out of his pocket